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Guantanamo Papers Reveal A Great Deal, Reporter Says

The previously secret documents released this week about the suspected terrorists that the U.S. has held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, reveal a lot about how that detention center works, says one of the journalists who has done some of the most extensive reporting about that facility since it began receiving prisoners in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Carol Rosenberg of the Miami Heraldtold All Things Considered host Michele Norris today that, for instance, "we learned that we had guards ... meticulously writing down prisoners' habits for the military intelligence [officers] who were also studying and taking part in interrogations."

The intelligence officers, she said, were using "bits and tidbits and pieces of information" to try to figure out who the detainees really were — and whether they were threats or not.

The habits they studied, included "exercise habits ... who sometimes was a hunger striker ... who was a trouble maker."

The goal: to build mosaics that the military hoped would add up to profiles.

Much more of Michele's conversation with Rosenberg is due on today's edition of All Things Considered. Click here to find an NPR station that broadcasts or streams the show. Later, we'll add the as-broadcast version of the interview to the top of this post.

The Heraldhas collected its reporting about the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and posted it online here. NPR's coverage of the documents is collected here.

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Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.